We’ve made it through another winter month. One step closer to spring! We’ve actually been having some really nice spring like weather the past few days, most of our snow has melted and we have swamp…trying to not complain about the mess our gravel road has become, the 4 wheel drive has come in handy the past two days just to get in and out of our driveway and the first couple hundred feet down our gravel. We have a good breeze going today and supposed to get down to 20 tonight, so a big help in starting to dry up a bit. Actually have a few windows cracked in the house today to get some air moving, a big relief!

Finn was sunning himself in the kitchen window yesterday afternoon…such a ham!

Life on the homestead here has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride recently.

Last week Uncle R came up from Florida to help get Gramma and Grampa back down south, we weren’t wanting to see them leave after having been here since before Thanksgiving and Grampa’s cancer doing no better, but it was time. Grampa had been chomping at the bit to get back south so he could get going on his taxes and Gramma wasn’t loving being here, living with her brother and his wife and not having her things.

The brother they’d been staying with went to the doctor not too long ago, came back from Mayo on Monday with results from having been up on Friday for tests. He’d learned a few weeks ago it was cancer and has been pretty tight lipped, giving very little detail and still hasn’t let go of too many facts since getting the results. Seems to us it’s the same type of cancer his little brother passed away from just short of two years ago.

The family could really use a break on the cancer front. Was talking with one of Old Boy’s cousins a week or two ago and we agreed we just need to find a big house with one floor, move everyone is that needs taking care of and just take care of everyone. Wouldn’t that be ideal? The family is pretty close and would do anything to take care of and do for one another. Frustrating to have to sit back and not be able to do anything.

On the fun front, my folks had their 52nd wedding anniversary on the 27th. The parentals must have been thrilled to have all three kids and all but three grandchildren pop in (uninvited) with pizza and cake for supper on Tuesday evening! We always invade and seem to leave a mess! Isn’t that what kids are for? Even when they are 45, 50 and 51? My dad’s mom would have told us to go home and take our mess with us! Oma had a way with saying, don’t you think you need to get home and get your kids to bed? Damn, miss that Ol’ Girl! She didn’t mince words! Our Bubba takes after her so much.

Now getting ready to make plans for Easter. The Girl and Dingbat will be coming home from Nebraska for a quick visit! Hoping to actually have all the grandchildren home and in one place for the first time in at least more than a year. Sent out a group text to my siblings today that I’ll make Oma’s fuchens (no one knows how to spell, came from our German side)…usually make them on Christmas Eve but we weren’t able to do it this year, so they are being done at Easter and that’s all there is to that…everyone is going to like it and if they don’t, they will pretend to like it! The Holiday Nazi has spoken…yes, not a PC word to use but that’s how the big kids always referred to me when it comes to one of those ‘you are going to do it and like it’ things of mine. If the family would just do what I say life would be so much more simple for everyone! Does that come from being the baby of the family? Possibly!

On the genealogy front…many of my family have decided to humor as of late and have found a treasure trove of information on a couple segments of the family whom I’ve been asking for quite some time to just throw me a bone. Found my 2X Great Grandparents marriage license in Germany, had all the information I already had except for the 2X Great Grandfather’s full name…he went by his second middle name, not his first name. Ferdinand Ludwig Julius…he went by Julius. Such a sneaky bugger, must have decided to humor me since I’ve been decorating their stones the past several years. I’m really not that hard to make happy, just a little something something can make my entire week!

Until Again!

Peace!

Another grand January day~way below freezing~but the sun makes it feel and seem warmer. Dogs are wound tight and are underfoot~wishing it was warm enough for them to go out in the play yard~the chihuahuas can’t take the cold.

Had us a weekend. The big kids came home from Nebraska for a visit~it was time for the annual Cattlemen’s banquet and dance again!

Used to be the one thing we looked forward to every year~the only time of the year I allow myself to drink. The one time of the year we’d go out and shake a booty~dance the night away and visit and laugh with friends we see only once a year.

Old Boy didn’t want to go this year~said the last few years were no fun. The Big Kids came home mainly for The Cattlemen’s~I wanted to go and visit and dance. He was pissy because he wanted to stay home~set the mood for the evening. I had as good a time as I was able to. Was able to get Old Boy out for one slow dance and we were home by 10:00.

What I’ve come to enjoy so much about this annual ToDo is that it was evolved over the years from a Rowdy Brawl where everyone knew there’d be one good scuffle to a more low key social family event. Most now bring their teens who are involved with the family farm, 4H and FFA. Nice seeing the new generation mingling with the older~learning the ropes.

NorthWest Iowa during thrashing…my great grandfather and neighbors.

We met up Sunday morning with some family for brunch in our small hamlet~was nice to get together and visit and support our neighbors in their new venture. It’s been ages since there has been anyplace in our area to go for brunch on Sunday. The neighbors had heard that from a number of people and thought they’d give it a try. Sounds like it’s going really well!

A year or so ago two local Catholic churches in our area were closed to merge with another small town Catholic church in the area. Originally it was said the churches were going to continue to be used for funerals and weddings. The one in our hamlet was decommissioned and sold. Our neighbors over the hill bought it and have really done a wonderful job with the building while respecting the building was a church. The kids moved their few year old business up the hill and have really done well thus far.

Was so nice having The Girl and DingBat home for the weekend. With their being so far away and busy with their work and livestock and us not having anyone we really trust to take care of the livestock and our dogs, we don’t get out to see them as we should. Bubba and I could go out out more than we do. Old Boy and I don’t dare leave him in charge to go out to visit~we’d come home to Lord knows what mess.

When The Girl was her age we could leave her home overnight with a friend or two and knew they were responsible enough to get chores done and make sure the dogs were properly cared for. Bubba is no where near ready for that kind of responsibility, even with the neighbors keeping an eye on him. Crazy how differently boys and girls mature. It’s frustrating at times.

We are trying to talk him into going to The Sweetheart Dance at school in a couple weeks. He’s never gone to a school dance and just knows they are stupid. Trying to get him to step out of his comfort zone. Get him to realize if he steps outside his box he may have a good time, or may not, but he’ll never know if he doesn’t try. At homecoming he and his best friend went deer hunting instead. They think they maybe would think about going together and just check it out. UGH! He loves to socialize, he loves the girls and has a bunch after him…he could just go and see what happens. Don’t know if I’ll ever get boys. Gotta love them though!

Day two of sun and everyone out and about for the day, Old Boy working and Bubba at school! Life is good at the moment!

Doesn’t look like it, but a perfect day to throw the snow boots on and hang laundry out to dry. We have quite a bit of melting going on today. Last I asked Google was told it was 34 degrees F.

The in-laws gave us a Google gadget for Christmas. They have one they use a lot, they ask it to play modern country when they are going out and about and leaving the dog home. We use it mainly for weather. We have to laugh from time to time being it doesn’t know how to pronounce our three lettered town and spells it out each time we ask for the temperature. Sometimes when I’m washing dishes or folding laundry I’ll ask it to tell me a story. It’s interesting.

Having been working on a temperature afghan for Old Boy and my 25th wedding anniversary come the end of May. This is all January 1 through March 1, 1993. If you’ve never heard of temperature blankets, it’s a fun thing. I set mine up in 15 degree segments although I usually do 10. Take the high temperature for each day and make one row in the color that the temperature falls into. 15 and below is Ivory, 16 to 30 is Brown, and so on.

Have made one for my folks’ and Old Boy’s folks’ 50th and our closest friends’ 25th. Something a little different and fun. I make out a chart with what each color stands for and a write out of the high temp for each day to go with each blanket. They are time consuming, but fun!

Had Bubba drag out my Gramma’s box of albums the other day, was blessed to get several of them. Gramma kept EVERYTHING, obviously where I get it! Didn’t find the picture that I was looking for but found some amazing pictures I’d obviously never paid close enough attention to recall ever seeing although I’ve gone through these albums dozens and dozens of times since a little kid staying with her.

So glad she kept everything! Letters I wrote her when we lived out in Lex when The Girl was a baby, cards I made her when I was in elementary school, some of my mom and her siblings report cards, pictures they drew and so on. Obituaries, funeral papers, church letters, even her own graduation invitation from 1936. I can lose myself for hours.

I remember my mom telling me about this fellow above. My Grampa and Dom worked together in California at the Mare Island Naval Yard during World War II together. After moving back to Iowa in the mid-1940’s the two continued to call one another every Christmas. Wonderful memories!

Have been making great progress lately on Old Boy’s side of the family ancestry! Wish my family lines would be more agreeable! Most of his lines go back way further than mine here in the states, most starting out in the east and staying for many years before heading to Iowa. I get so tickled by some of the things I find and no one here is interested in the least. The past two weeks or so I’ve discovered two and three times grandparents on his side that are buried a county over in two different directions…so excited for the spring to come and go visit them. Always bring flowers for them, figuring so far removed that they haven’t had flowers in ages and that they’d like it.

Yes, I’m one of those. A year or so ago while talking with one of Old Boy’s aunts and uncles, we were talking about needing to decide where we were wanting to be buried and getting our plots. Our close by cemetery where several of both our families are buried is where the four of us all decided was where we wanted to be. Uncle said he wanted to be as close to his folks as he could, in the newer part of the cemetery…I said I wanted to be in the older section, it’s so beautiful over there. Uncle asked why being we didn’t know anyone over there to talk to! He gets me! That’s the way I talk…Aunt and Old Boy just kinda shook their heads. Our kids hate it when we get onto the cemetery topic and will tell us they’d like it if we changed the subject. Part of life.

Suppose it’s about that time…perfect day to take out what needs to be burned and maybe take the big dog for a walk!

Snow, snow and more snow. We were hit with our first blizzard and major snow of the season yesterday. No school yesterday or today, it’s been a long weekend! We were lucky to have little to no wind today so the highways and blacktop roads are all good, not sure about the gravels, those tend to take a bit longer to clear. We are lucky we live an eighth of a mile off the blacktop and Old Boy can easily clear our road and get us out.

Again, long weekend. Our Bubba turned 16 on Saturday. The boys were up and off to the city first thing so they could be at the Driver’s License Station when it opened up at 8:00. There’s something new since The Girl got her full license, Old Boy was given the option to sign a paper that for the first six months Bubba can have only one non-family member under 18 with him at a time. He did and Bubba isn’t thrilled about it, but when you think about it, it’s a good idea…especially with these gear head buddies of his.

We let him dink and diddle for his birthday. He and his friend Chey were all over the county. He wasn’t thrilled that we had a small birthday party with a Cake Lady cake…but he knows in our family birthdays are a big thing and he doesn’t have to like it but he has to pretend to like it! On my side everyone but my folks had plans and Old Boy’s family didn’t come because Grampa with his cancer and his sister and her kidney transplant still need to watch being around a lot of germs, so it was just Old Boy, Leo, Chey, my folks and myself, so not too painful of an experience for him!

Today I hit 45 years on this earth, but I feel more like 35…so I’m 35! Years ago I used to have a melt down on my birthday, the whole getting older thing started really bothering me when I turned 22…had nothing else to look forward to but Black Balloon Birthdays. We’re talking bawling on my birthday and ripping the heads off people who dared mention the day. When I turned 40 I had a revelation that changed my way of thinking. Actually, Old Boy had been saying it for years but that’s the age I was when it hit…age is nothing more than a number of how years a person has been alive, has nothing to do with how old we feel. So, this year I hop from 29 to 35. My knees creak too much to be 29. Guess if I’d listen to my doctor, my chiropractor and everyone else who hears my bitching about my knees and stop sitting cross legged for hours at night while doing my stuff…pry wouldn’t have that problem. Sitting any other way just isn’t as comfortable, so I’ll just continue to torture myself.

Peace!

Another day in the frozen tundra, or so it seems…we’ve been hit by an unexpected on and off again all day snow. Just enough to be really pretty to watch fall and just enough to have made the roads get really crappy really fast. Old Boy had to meet with a farmer about an hour south of here, took him about three hours to get home…said most of the drive was on a sheet of ice. Glad we had everything we needed!

Bubba spent last night with his favorite Cousin Emi and family. One would never guess they are second cousins, they are more like brother and sister. He likes to go over there because he gets special treatment since my cousin and her husband only have girls and they spoil him AND they do fun things like have family movie night with junk food, four wheelers and snow mobiles, they sled and mom and dad come out and play with them.

Old Boy doesn’t get it as to why a boy and a girl cousin would want to hang out and spend the night at one another’s homes, although he grew up with a cousin in the same matter. I just enjoyed getting a break of Bubba being so bored of being home that he follows me around the house night and day telling me about vehicles, motors, tires…he is a huge motor head and sometimes he gets my brain to floating because I just cannot understand all he is explaining. I listen and try, but very little do I actually understand.

Pretty excited…a couple years ago Bubba and I met a great aunt of Old Boy’s while laying flowers at the cemetery. I’d recently discovered a set of his great-grandparents and they are buried at the same cemetery as several of my relatives, a lady came up to us and asked who we were, she knew of no others who ever put flowers on those graves. We introduced ourselves and visited for quite some time, she offered to have us over anytime being she had all the old family photos and such. Didn’t get the call made until today and I’m really excited and hoping she has enough information to help break through a wall I’ve been head-butting for a long time with no luck.

My wheels are turning, feeling some major motivation that I haven’t had in ages…isn’t that the way it goes, dead of winter and cold and snowy as hell and getting out and about is as miserable as all get out.

This blog is all about roaming the Bicol Region, Philippines wisely on a budget. We'll talk about what Bicol has to offer when it comes to great hotel deals, good food and where to go on your vacation. So, I hope this blog site will be helpful to those of you on the look out for great deals while you have fun in Bicol. After all, the wisest of us believe that the concept of toil is just a myth, and life should be a never-ending vacation.